Bush Makes Last Calls to World Leaders

With just hours left in his presidency, President George W. Bush today made a round of phone calls to leaders around the globe. A National Security Council spokesman said the president was simply saying his goodbyes, thanking the leaders for the hospitality they had shown him and first lady Laura Bush over the years.

The White House said Bush chatted with: President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia; Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia; President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea; Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark; Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy; former President Vicente Fox of Mexico; Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan; and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain. (More George W. Bush stories.)